Hoda Safari Yazd is a Ph.D. candidate in analytical chemistry at the University of Florida and working under the supervision of Prof. Richard Yost and Dr. Timothy Garrett. She received her B.Sc. in chemistry from Sharif University of Technology in 2015 and her M.Sc. in computational chemistry from the same school in 2017. Hoda's research at UF primarily focuses on combining analytical chemistry tools and scientific programming for the metabolomic discovery of rare disorders. She is currently working on two projects; the first project concentrates on the detection of new biomarkers in meningiomas to improve early detection of this disease by employing machine learning as a tool on mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data. The second project is focused on the characterization of rare X-chromosome deletion disorders using metabolomics and lipidomics workflows by UHPLC-HRMS on neural progenitor cells. Hoda is one of the founding members and main organizers of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL-ECN).

Sina received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Sharif University of Technology, which is the most prestigious university in Iran. To pursue his scientific life as an analytical chemist, he joined the University of Florida. He is currently a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Richard Yost and Dr. Timothy Garrett. His research now focuses on finding biomarkers and understanding lipid profiles in pancreatic cells and exosomes by implementing UHPLC-HRMS. He utilized IE-omics and multivariate statistical analysis to characterize the major lipids in pancreatic cancer cells and particles.

Erika Dorado is a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London working on lipidomic analysis and the identification of body-fluid based biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. She completed her PhD in Clinical Medicine Research at Imperial College London working on the lipidomic analysis of extracellular vesicles and its potential for cancer diagnosis. Before starting her PhD, she worked on proteomics and phosphoproteomics analysis in cancer signaling pathways at the Barts Cancer Institute. Her MSc was focused on -omics technologies, where she worked on analysis of protein-protein interactions using cross-linking mass spectrometry. She obtained her BSc in Biology focused in molecular and cell biology, and after that worked in the study of mutations in antimalarial and malaria diagnosis targets. She is one of the leads of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL ECN) and is currently the Chair of the European Region.

I obtained both my BSc and MSc degree at the University of Pécs, Hungary, where my work focused on the analysis of clinically relevant glycosylated proteins using capillary electrophoresis hyphenated to mass spectrometry.

In 2018 – after a 3-month Erasmus internship – I moved to the Netherlands, where I am currently a PhD candidate working under the supervision of Manfred Wuhrer at Leiden University Medical Center. My projects focus on clinical glycomics in various disease settings, such as autoimmune hepatitis, transplantation and COVID-19, as well as on technological developments in the field of linkage-specific sialic acid derivatization.

Ethan Yang is a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Kristine Glunde's Lab in the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University. His current research focuses on combining imaging mass spectrometry with other biomedical imaging approaches to provide a more holistic approach to reserach and diagnosis. He completed his PhD under Prof. Pierre Chaurand at the University of Montreal working on elaborating new techniques to enhance the sensitivity and selectivity of MALDI-TOF imaging mass spectrometry. He obtained his B.Sc. in Biochemistry at McGill University. He is a founding member of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL ECN) and is now the interim Chair of the Asia-Pacific Region.

Niloofar Abolhasani Khaje is a PhD candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis in Pharmacology from the University of Mississippi under Prof. Joshua Sharp’s supervision. She has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She is passionate about developing new mass spectrometry-based methods for studying the structure-function relationships of biomolecules. She has developed novel methods for data collection of Hydroxyl Radical Protein Footprinting (HRPF) via Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins (FPOP) that allow for more efficient collection and analysis of the resulting data. She accomplished this by developing an LC-MS/MS method that allows coelution of isomeric oxidized peptides, which don’t coelute under standard Reverse Phase (RP) LC-MS/MS methods, while separating different peptides. She also demonstrated that the coeluted isomeric peptides could be accurately quantitated using data-dependent acquisition methods instead of the time consuming data-independent methods that have to be used with RP methods. In collaboration with other members of the Sharp lab and labs across the country, Niloofar is developing methods to transform HRPF-FPOP MS into a structural technique. This requires adapting current methods in computational modeling to use HRPF-FPOP data to allow for structure determination of biomolecules that would be difficult using the standard X-ray crystallography, NMR, and cryo-EM methods.

Hoda Safari Yazd is a Ph.D. candidate in analytical chemistry at the University of Florida and working under the supervision of Prof. Richard Yost and Dr. Timothy Garrett. She received her B.Sc. in chemistry from Sharif University of Technology in 2015 and her M.Sc. in computational chemistry from the same school in 2017. Hoda's research at UF primarily focuses on combining analytical chemistry tools and scientific programming for the metabolomic discovery of rare disorders. She is currently working on two projects; the first project concentrates on the detection of new biomarkers in meningiomas to improve early detection of this disease by employing machine learning as a tool on mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data. The second project is focused on the characterization of rare X-chromosome deletion disorders using metabolomics and lipidomics workflows by UHPLC-HRMS on neural progenitor cells. Hoda is one of the founding members and main organizers of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL-ECN).

Mudita is a PhD student at M4i, Maastricht University supervised by Ron M.A Heeren and Berta Cillero Pastor. She is a Marie Curie fellow working on FoodTraNet project where she is studying the influence of crop protection and soil nutrients on the molecular composition of grape vine leaves by comparing the metabolic differences before and after spraying (commercial versus biological spraying).
This work involves the use of DESI, MALDI-ToF, MALDI Biotyper, REIMS and LC-ESI-MS.

I obtained my PhD from University of Greifswald, Germany in Cardiovascular proteomics where I studied proteomic differences in chronic stages of dilated cardiomyopathy in mice models. Subsequently I worked in industry and in research lab as protein mass spectrometrist. I am currently working as a research associate in glycoproteomics at the Dept. of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University. My research interests are method development in mass spectrometry and it's applications in Proteomics

I am a postdoctoral research associate at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Currently I am working on targeted method development for detection and quantification of proteins in foods which can trigger an allergic response in susceptible individuals. Considering the complexity of food matrices and the type of processing these foods have undergone, I equate my project to solving a multi-level puzzle with increasing challenges to overcome at each level. I am fascinated by the technology behind mass spectrometry and its applications, especially in field of proteomics. So far in my career I got opportunities to employ mass spectrometry and proteomics to address challenges in food allergy, cell biology, infectious disease biology, cancer biology, and bacterial strain improvement. I believe mastering in the art of mass spectrometry will open a path to apply one’s expertise in various areas, from academia to industry, from clinical labs to pharmaceutical manufacturing. I am expecting to transition out of my current postdoctoral position towards the second half of 2021. I would like to transition into a job where I can combine my passion for mass spectrometry, proteomics, and method development. I could see myself fitting well in the role of an R&D scientist in instrumentation industry, in clinical proteomics labs, or in biopharmaceutical industry. I am looking for opportunities to netwrok with people from these areas.

Rebecca holds a master’s degree in biomedical science is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Bioanalytical Chemistry PhD program at Cleveland State University. Her research aims include the use of mass spectrometry-based proteomics applied to colorectal cancer research, including early onset disease, and uncovering prognostic markers of relapse. She also has developed a quantitative LC-MS/MS method to quantify inflammatory and immune-related stool proteins with the goal to better improve adenoma detection rates compared with current screening tests.
Prior to her joining her doctoral program, Rebecca had conducted research at MAP Sciences in the UK as a part of her master’s thesis work where she used MALDI-TOF MS for the early the detection of preeclampsia by mass spectral fingerprinting and for maternal antenatal screening of other gestational disorders.
Rebecca also hold a concurrent position at the Proteomics and Metabolomics Core at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, where she is responsible for untargeted metabolomics workflows and data analysis as well as targeted small molecule method development.
Rebecca’s academic training and research experience has provided her with a strong background in clinical biochemistry and informatics to investigate clinical problems using the latest technology in mass spectrometry-based proteomics and metabolomics.

Ólöf Gerður is a PhD student at Margret Thorsteinsdottir´s and Sigridur Klara Bodvarsdottir lab in Iceland. She is working on a collaborative project with Zoltan Takat´s lab at Imperial College London where she uses imaging mass spectrometry to identify biomarkers in breast tissue. Ólöf obtained her B.Sc. at University of Iceland in Biochemistry with focus on molecular biology. She achieved her M.Sc. at University of Copenhagen (Denmark) in Human Biology, with focus on cellular and molecular biology. She has 3 years experience working as a research assistant for both University of Iceland and University of Copenhagen as well as she did a short-term internship at the Danish pharmaceutical company, Lundbeck.
Ólöf is a current co-Chair of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL ECN).